We were driving through Tawa this afternoon and saw a female mannequin dressed as Santa in an op shop window. I pointed it out and started telling my wife about Emma's observation - Santa is a man but women perform most of the Santa work. Before she had even finished nodding in agreement, a little voice from the back seat said "wait, Mum is Santa"?

I love Jakob. And when I say that, what I mean is that I love Jakob. For various reasons, including the fact that they providing the soundtrack to me falling in love with my wife, their beautiful music means a great deal to me, and it is such a grand thing when an artist you love does not let you down.

Or are you really saying that John Key was so obviously a dirty lying liar the media should have said “Fuck it, we’re not even going to pretend to be objective any more, and we’re going to take everything in Hager’s book at face value and ignore any response from Key”? Because that’s somewhere I’m not willing to go.

This particular wave of the discussion may have already passed, but I doubt that anyone is seriously suggesting this. Possibly something more along the lines of 'show, don't tell'.

If anyone is interested, the good folks over at actionstation have set up a petition calling for a Royal Commission into Dirty Politics.

For me, in the current context, signing felt like an incredibly... small act, but I did so because I very much share the sentiment expressed in the e-mail they sent me yesterday; it is no longer sufficient just to stay as informed as possible and to exercise my democratic right every three years. Time to get off the proverbial arse. (I realise that signing an e-petiton is not technically getting off my arse, but it's the first example of putting into action a new conviction to take every opportunity to make a contribution.)

I go anger => sadness => anger => sadness over and over several times a day.

Me too, but am I alone in also experiencing the occasional bout of excitement and hope? I think that this whole process will ultimately be cleansing (to some degree). As the old saying goes, these revelations are much better out than in.